CHICAGO — While Angels manager Kurt Suzuki chooses to look at the bright side of his team’s defense in the first week of the season, the numbers paint a much darker picture.

The Angels are 25th in Outs Above Average, tied for 26th in Fielding Run Value and 27th in FanGraphs’ cumulative defensive metric.

The sample size at this point is much too small to tell the story of the Angels’ defense. At this point, a few good games could vault them in the rankings.

Still, it’s a concerning start for a team that last year ranked 30th in Fielding Run Value. The only position in which they made a positive personnel change is second base. Otherwise, they are banking on the returning players performing better.

So far, they’ve run into some rough spots that have been costly.

On Saturday in Houston, pitcher Walbert Ureña made a bad throw after picking up a dribbler in front of the plate. That opened the door for the Astros to score eight unearned runs. Catcher Logan O’Hoppe also made one of his three throwing errors in that inning.

Third baseman Yoán Moncada has made two errors this season, and he also couldn’t find the bag when trying to complete a double play on Monday night. The latter led to two runs.

Center fielder Mike Trout and second baseman Oswald Peraza couldn’t track down a wind-blown pop-up in the first inning on Monday, leading to two runs.

Suzuki chose to look at the positives when evaluating the first-week defense.

“A lot of great plays being made too,” Suzuki said. “I know everything gets magnified to the negative things, but there’s a lot of great plays being made on the infield and outfield, a lot of good jumps. The work’s been good. We’ve just got to stay consistent with our work.”

The defense did make a handful of impressive plays in the Angels’ Opening Day victory, with Moncada looking particularly sharp. Peraza saved a run with two diving plays the next night. Shortstop Zach Neto made a handful of nice plays in Houston.

Trout and Jorge Soler, in right, each made diving catches in Houston.

Pitcher Jordan Romano made a nice play picking up a dribbler in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game.

“I think we are a good defensive team,” Suzuki said. “Obviously, we made some miscues the last few games that cost us and when you lose it gets magnified. But if you look at overall work, there’s some really good stuff that’s happening.”

Suzuki believes that the results will improve over time.

“Honestly, they’ve been working every day, you know, so my biggest message to them was the consistency,” Suzuki said. “In this game of baseball, which is an imperfect game, mistakes are going to happen. Obviously, you’d like to minimize it as much as you can, but at the same time, we understand mistakes happen.”

CANDELARIO IN, MONCADA OUT

Jeimer Candelario got the start at third base on Tuesday night, the first time so far this season that Moncada has not been in the lineup. Suzuki said it was more about Candelario than Moncada.

“Candy had a great spring and hasn’t gotten the start yet, so wanted to get him in there, just to keep him fresh, keep him active and get some at-bats,” Suzuki said. “We’re going to need everybody. You don’t want the guys on the bench to get stale.”

Aside from his defensive mistakes, Moncada is 2 for 17 at the plate. He hit his first home run on Monday night.

“I don’t think any of those guys played more than three in a row in spring training, full games especially,” Suzuki said. “I felt like it was a good time to give him a blow, give him a break. I talked to him last night after the game and he’s all for it. He had a good workout. He’s hitting in the cage. He’s in a good place.”

YATES UPDATE

Right-handed reliever Kirby Yates has continued to increase his intensity while playing catch, and he is scheduled to throw off a mound on Wednesday. It will be his first bullpen since feeling pain in his left knee before the Angels left Arizona.

“I wouldn’t expect it to be a full bullpen, 25 pitches or anything like that,” Yates said on Tuesday. “Just get on a mound and make sure everything is OK, and go from there.”

NOTES

Infielder Vaughn Grissom was set to begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Salt Lake on Tuesday night. Grissom was in the lineup at third base. Grissom has been out since March 11 with a left wrist injury. The maximum time he can be on a rehab assignment is 20 days. Grissom is out of options, so the Angels will have a tough roster decision to make once he’s healthy enough to play. …

The forecast for Wednesday’s series finale calls for the temperature to be in the 40s, but dry.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Yusei Kikuchi, 0-0, 4.15 ERA) at Cubs (LHP Matthew Boyd, 0-1, 14.73), Wednesday, 11:20 a.m. PT, FanDuel Sports Network, 830 AM